History of commercial whaling

Early this century, the northern whaling fleet discovered whales in the southern oceans. And so the exploitation of Antarctica began.

Norway set up whaling companies around the world, and by 1912 controlled most of the world's whaling (2). Up until 1924, whales were brought ashore for processing. In 1924 the first factory ships appeared. Catching ships now took their victims to the factory ship rather than land, increasing the number of whales they could kill. The number of whales processed rose from 12,000 in 1910 to 40,000 in 1940 (2).

Whalers exploited one species after another; as one become scarce they moved on to the next. In the early part of the century the huge blue whale was the preferred victim. The killing reached a peak in 1930-31, when 29,000 blue whales were slaughtered. The blue whale was finally protected in 1965, but by that time the original numbers of 200,000 had dropped to 6000 (1). As the blue whale became scarce, whalers moved on to the fin whale, then the sei whale, and now it is the relatively small minke whale that is hunted by Norway and Japan.

Japan is traditionally the only country that has used whale meat from the commercial kill for human consumption. Other countries were more interested in whale oil. Here are some of the things whales have been killed for:

Australian whaling

Until 1978 Australia was a whaling nation. Already in the last century, whales were killed around the coast. For details of this early history in Australia, see Whales in Danger Information Service.

Large numbers of whales were processed at a whaling station near Albany in Western Australia, including southern right whales, humpbacks and sperm whales. In 1978 this station was closed. In 1980 a law was passed to make it illegal to capture, injure or interfere with any cetacean within Australia's 200 nautical mile fishing zone. In 1981 the importation of whale products was banned.

Australia is a member of the International Whaling Commission. It supported the setting up of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary in 1994. It has a policy opposing commercial whaling.

International Whaling Commission (IWC)

The IWC was set up in 1946 to regulate whaling, for example, to set quotas for how many whales of a particular species could be killed in the next year. The big problem is it has no power to enforce its decisions. Any member can object to a decision, and is then exempt from that decision.

Some good IWC decisions include:
1979 - set up the Indian Ocean whale sanctuary
1981 - ban the non-exploding harpoon
1985 - impose a moratorium on commercial whaling, although subsistence whaling is allowed to continue
1994 - set up the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary

Norway objected to the halting of commercial whaling, and since 1993 has set its own quota of minke whales, in defiance of the IWC. It set a quota of 580 for 1997 (and ended by killing 503), and increased this quota to 671 for 1998 (4).

Japan supposedly accepts the commercial ban, but kills even more minke whales than Norway for "scientific" purposes. It just so happens that whale meat also ends up for sale in the market! Japan continues to kill whales even in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary around Antarctica, in defiance of the IWC.

Since the commercial whaling moratorium began at the beginning of 1986, 19,000 whales have been killed, the majority by Norway and Japan (5).

In 1992 Iceland, another whaling nation, resigned from the IWC. Fortunately it has not resumed commercial whaling. Whale watching is proving very popular in Iceland, with the number of people paying to see whales doubling from 10,000 in 1996 to over 20,000 in 1997 (6). Hopefully Iceland will realise that there is more money in watching whales than in killing them.

At its 1997 meeting the IWC called on Norway to respect the moratorium on commercial whaling, and called on Japan to stop issuing permits for so-called scientific whaling.

The IWC allowed the following whales to be killed for subsistence hunting, mainly in Alaska, Russia and Greenland (3):
280 bowheads whales over 5 years
620 gray whales over 5 years
19 fin whales each year for 5 years (45 whales in total)
175 eastern minke whales each year for 5 years (875 in total)
12 western minke whales each year for 5 years (60 in total)
2 humpback whales each year for 3 years (6 in total)

These quotas were set even though there are only about 3000 bowhead whales left in the world, whaling is not necessary for the physical survival of any native people these days, and the IWC acknowledged that methods of killing whales are not humane.

The IWC noted the educational value of whale watching. In 1996, 5 million people went whale watching in 60 countries, spending more than $500 million (7). Whales watching is a humane and economically successful alternative to killing whales, and could be used to generate many new jobs.

Shady deals in the whale industry

Back to the main document on Whales and dolphins .

References

  1. Macdonald D, Encyclopedia of Mammals: 1 George, Allen & Unwin, London, 1984
  2. Cherfas J, The Hunting of the Whale , Penguin, London, 1989
  3. IWC Final Press Release at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/iwcoffice/press97.htm#Press
  4. Whales in Danger Information Service, Special Action Alert - Norway, at http://whales.magna.com.au/alert/norway/index.html
  5. O'Connell K, "The 1996 International Whaling Commission", Whales Alive , 1996, vol V No3
  6. Barstow R, "Whale watching soars in Iceland", Whales Alive! 1997, vol VI No 4
  7. Barstow R, "Turmoil at the IWC - a Test of Wills ", Whales Alive! 1997, vol VI No 4